News channels gain with terror coverage

There has been a significant surge in the share of news channels, especially Hindi news channels

As & #BANNER1 & # the terror attacks and rescue operations in Mumbai's top hotels were carried out for more than 50 hours beginning Wednesday night, thousands of Indians were glued to their television sets, awaiting and reacting to the smallest information disseminated on news channels. News channel vans near the hotels kept information flowing throughout the day, keeping the nation clued in to each development.

As per aMap data for C&S, 15+, North, West and East markets, on November 27, the Hindi News channels saw an increase in time spent of 153 per cent, while the English News channel saw an increase in time spent of 24 percent in comparison to the average times spent by viewers for last four Thursdays.

Among Hindi News channels, IBN7 managed a maximum increase in time spent (181 per cent) followed by India TV (179 per cent). The time spent on Aaj Tak increased 172 per cent while on STAR News it increased by 131 per cent.

Among English News channels, the time spent on Times Now increased by 62 per cent, while on CNN IBN it increased by 3 per cent. However, on NDTV 24X7, the time spent decreased by 6 per cent, and that on NewsX, and Headlines Today it decreased by 20 per cent and 14 per cent, respectively.

In terms of GRPs of individual channels, Aaj Tak had the most audiences locked in with its coverage of the terror mayhem. In the last four Thursdays, Aaj Tak managed an average GRP of 6.3. But on Thursday, November 27, just a few hours after the initial attacks, Aaj Tak's GRP reached 28.8. On November 28, the GRP of AajTak further increased to 36.8.

Among the Hindi new channels, India TV came in second with 21 GRP on November 27 which further increased to 34.3 on November 28. In the last four Thursdays, it average GRP was only 3.8.

STAR News' which comes next reached 20.6, and 27.1 GRP on November 27 and 28, respectively. This is a four times for its last 4 Thursdays average of 6 GRP.

IBN7, too, witnessed a remarkable surge in its GRP, from 17.5 on November 27 to 24.4 on November 28.

Among the other Hindi news channels, NDTV India garnered 10.2 GRP on November 27, but fell to 9.4 GRP on November 28. Zee News on the other hand garnered 8.8 GRP on November 27, but surpassed NDTV India on November 28 with 11.4 GRP. News24 which is a relatively new channel managed to garner 7.1 GRP on November 27 but fell down to 6.4 GRP on November 28.

Among the English news channels, Times Now and NDTV 24X7 gained the most, with CNN-IBN coming close. Times Now's GRP on Nov 27 and 28 were 4.9 and 4.6, respectively (C&S, 15+, All India).

NDTV garnered 4.7 GRP on November 27, but came down to 4.5 GRP on the following day. CNN-IBN managed to grab 3.3 GRP on both days - November 27 and 28. Among other Headlines Today managed 1.1 GRP on both days, while NewsX garnered 1.5 GRP on November 27 and 1 on November 28.

Some of the news channels were blacked out by the I&B Ministry, as too much restricted information was being given out, despite requests by officials.